ZachTheZip

Zippy is BACK! Let's do this.

The MAC does not have a contract with a bowl game in Detroit this season. The MAC champs now play in the GoDaddy bowl in Mobile, while the runner-up gets banished to Idaho to play in the Potato Bowl. After that, it's the Camellia Bowl, Boca Raton Bowl, and finally the Bahamas Bowl. So, if we can't win the MAC, I'm hoping we finish 5th.

Did anybody check out the scrimmage today?

You have to beat the best to be the best, and we haven't beaten anybody of note since 2008. The long decline with JD Brookhart followed by a total disaster of a coaching hire wiped away any memories of the Akron Zips being anything more than a doormat. Many people are convinced that we've never won more than two or three games a season in living memory. That's how profoundly bad the past five seasons have been. Couple that with the basketball loss to VCU, and there's the public perception of our sports teams. NE Ohio loves to remember bad sports and lets themselves be defined by it. Any history to the contrary is ignored. The only cure is sustained success over the course of 5+ years. Success that can't be written off as small-time. Football needs to go bowling every year, basketball needs to make the tournament every single year, and win a game or two along the way.

Doubt it. Nike rules the day, and they want it in Vegas.

He should be back to coaching next week.

Camp update from Elton He also noticed Mizell's weight loss. Jerome Lane is switching from LB to Safety. It should be exciting to see him flying around the field. Jamel Turner is off the team. Just couldn't stay eligible.

He has to sit.

For several consecutive years. Otherwise, they'll look at it as a fluke. The problem with the student population is that there's a large amount of turnover from year to year. In two more years, very few will have ever seen Zeke Marshall in a Zips uniform. Even today, only a handful remember the McKnight brothers or Nikola or Jimmy Conyers. You have to win on a national stage for several years in a row to establish a culture that carries over to new students.

We'll be playing the USC Trojans in the first round of the Charleston Classic. After that, it's Drexel/Miami. It's a really weak tournament, truth be told.

She must be a nutritionist or something. I usually gain 35 pounds on a visit to the family. Grandma's Italian cooking will do that to you.

An intriguing blurb at the end: "Senior linebacker C.J. Mizell apparently melted 35 pounds off of his 6-foot-2 frame during a recent visit home, he said. The result is obvious — there doesn’t appear to be a milligram of fat on his body.". Sounds like he's gearing up for an All-MAC season.

So, if they're removing the arena from the proposed tax increase, shouldn't the percentage be lowered? Sounds like it was all a scam.

Stay in the doghouse, or come to Akron and get playing time along side your former teammates. Hmm.

Think Tracy Sprinkle will be next?

Total attendance was 20,673. We've hit that a few times. Difference is, the excitement level wasn't there for the Zips games because of the recent losing. Same sized crowd, just not as enthusiastic.

He redshirted in 2011. That means his eligibility runs out at the end of the 2015 season no matter what happens. He'll either get the waiver and play both this season and next, or he'll sit for a year and play in 2015 before graduating. If OSU puts in the good word for him, I think he'll get the waiver. Only question is whether the NCAA moves fast enough that it's granted before the season starts.

http://ohiostate.247sports.com/Board/120/Contents/SIAP-confirmed-Tommy-Brown-to-Akron-29983833 Not 100% official yet, but pretty confident this is happening.

All of those banks already have their names on arenas. I'm not sure First Merit has the cash to spend, but maybe they're better off than I think.

Out of the big regional companies, Key Bank, FirstEnergy and Progressive are off the table. I don't see Parker-Hannifin, Lubrizol, or Cliffs as companies that would be interested in putting their name on an arena. Sherwin-Williams, JM Smucker, Timken, or TravelCenters of America (TA truck stops) are the big ones along with Goodyear.

Beats Electronics? Considering how pretty much every promotion during basketball season involved giving away their headphones, maybe there's already something there to work with. They could put in a killer sound system. Coca-Cola sponsors LeBron, and it looks like they don't have a naming deal on any arena within the United States. UA has a beverage contract with them so there's not a conflict.

Goodyear?

https://twitter.com/ChrisMWilliams/status/491604868130299904 Would have to sit out this season. Think he only has one year left after that.

Players report today. Should see a roster update at some point.

https://twitter.com/JUCOFFrenzy/status/494204530792603648